What exactly is luck? Some dictionaries define it as the chance happening of fortunate or adverse events; fortune. It is also defined as good fortune or prosperity, success and also as one's personal fate or lot. But being unlucky is just the opposite and is defined as subjected to or marked by misfortune, resulting or likely to result in misfortune, inauspicious or not producing the desired outcome, disappointing. I have known people that were so unlucky that they couldn't win a bet no matter who they bet on, even the favorite. On the other hand I have also known people that seem to have incredible luck against all odds. Is there some unseen force that creates luck of one kind or another?

I don't really believe this but is undeniable that some people are just plain unlucky. Here are a few examples of people with extremely bad luck.

A thief in Europe broke into a car to steal a 1,000 euro note that was left on the dashboard. While he was breaking into the car the police caught him. As they took the note from him and turned it over there was an advertisement on the other side, the note was just a promotional stunt for advertising. Didn't this thief feel foolish? Why would anyone leave a 1,000 euro note on the dash of their car anyway?

A German man had stolen a bike from next to a police station. He thought that he would sell it and make a few euros. He approached two men and offered them the bike at a very reasonable price. The men were undercover cops and became suspicious when they noticed bolt cutters sticking out from under the man's jacket.

Gary Stevens is a jockey is in the Hall of Fame. I would have to say that he usually has quite good luck. Stevens was in a race and made it almost to the finish line when, all of a sudden, his horse bolted and bumped several other horses throwing Stevens off. The horse fished first but lost the race because the judges relegated the horse to fourth place. Stevens had taken a million dollar spill.

Some people believe that the number 13 is very unlucky. The number 13 is feared by many in the western world. Some Christians believe that Christ was crucified on a Friday and that there were 13 people at the last supper, an unbeatable combination for bad luck. Loki, an evil Norse god went to a party for 12, to which he was uninvited, at Valhalla. While at the party he tricked the blind brother of the god Balder to throw mistletoe at Balder. Mistletoe was the only thing that could kill him. He died. He was the god of light, joy and reconciliation. I guess this would really make 13 unlucky. On a Friday the 13th in 1307 King Philip IV of France executed most of the Knights Templars marking the day as evil in the minds of many people.

Did you know that you can go on Ebay, type in the words 'bad luck' into the search engine and find many items for sale like Warren Zevon's "Bad Luck Streak ..." or Bad Luck motivational posters or the Bad Luck Vocal Collection to mention a few items.

Now I don't necessarily believe in luck but I have had some odd things happen to me in my life. I was working in the US Post Office and got very friendly with another clerk at the time. I joined the US Army and served for three years. When I was discharged I went back to the Post Office. My old friend saw me and came over to tell me he had become a very big boss and asked me if I would work for him. I said I would think it over and that night decided I would. I went into work the next day only to find out he had died the night before at only 35 years old. Many years later a similar situation presented itself at a different job. Again I was told by someone very high up to come to him because he wanted to do me a favor job wise. I thought about it but before I could do anything about it I received the word that he too had died. This certainly seems like bad luck doesn't it? My wife jokingly says to me that it is unhealthy to try and do me a favor. I not only have had bad experiences with employment, but very bad experiences with electronics. I went into a department store to purchase a tv, a NEW tv. I lugged it home, took it out of the box and it didn't work. I repacked it and lugged it back to the store. They gave me another NEW tv. This was a reputable department store and the boxes were sealed. I got home, took the tv out of the box, plugged it in and got a picture, a rolling picture that wouldn't stop. Now I was really annoyed. I packed up the tv, lugged it back to the store. I got credit for it and bought a third tv, but a different brand. This one finally worked. I thought it would be nice to get a stereo a few weeks later. I went to a different store, saw a nice stereo and bought it. You guessed it, when I unpacked it, it didn't work. I seem to be cursed in this area. We can call this the electronics curse. It struck me several more times over the years. I bought a NEW car that I attempted to drive home three times, it kept breaking down, the dealer had to give me a loaner while he replaced the ignition module (electronics part) on the car. I purchased another car, NEW. This car totally fell apart in a little over one year. I tried going back to the Chevy dealer where I bought it but he had gone out of business. I finally had to sell the car to a used car dealer who I knew. The paint was peeling off the car, the transmission leaked, the electrical system was screwed up and finally the engine block cracked. The car was slightly over I year old and in those days you only got a 12 month warranty. I found out years later that a bunch of cars had been in a flood in NJ but this dealer was selling them as new. The washing machine I purchased had to be returned when that didn't work but the replacement worked for years. Now lets talk about computers. Years ago I purchased a Commodore 64 NEW, it didn't work, I had to bring it back, the replacement worked. I bought several more Commodore 64s, some worked, some had to be returned. I purchased a floppy drive for the first one, it didn't work and had to be returned. A few years later I purchased an Amiga and decided to buy a brand name stereo for it. The stereo went on fire, it was purchased NEW only about 6 month before it burned. I bought a NEW windows pc with the idea of expansion in the future. When I went to expand it by putting in a dvd player I found that the case had been assembled in such a way that there was no way to remove the original drive without damaging the case. My luck with computers was pretty good after that for awhile until I decided to build the ultimate computer myself. It cost me about 1800 dollars at the time and was a dream. The computer was very fast and had every accessory I dreamed of. As luck would have it there was a power spike about two weeks later and even though I had the computer protected it went through everything and blew the mother board and many components. One day I decided to get myself a nice suit so I went into a well known men's wear store. In the store was this beautiful suit, NEW. For the times it was expensive but I figured since I needed one really good suit I would treat myself. The first time I wore the suit, I noticed that the sleeve was starting to come off. I took the suit back to the store and they apologized and sewed the sleeve. The suit looked good as new. I wore the suit again and now the other sleeve began to come off. I was getting angry and brought the suit back and the tailor fixed it again, it looked great. Well the third time I wore the suit the seam open up. Now I was really angry and took the suit to the store and had words with the manager. It just so happened that the owner of the chain of men's store was in the store. He came over to see what was going on. I angrily told him about my experiences with the suit and he told me that life was too short to worry about things like this and that he should know since he was a prisoner in WWII of the Nazis and he was Jewish. He gave me back my money. Later he notified me that the reason there was so much trouble with the suit was the fact that it was a double knit and the wrong thread was used to sew it together. It seems the thread was cutting through the material. So you see I have had my share of bad luck in the little things but never in the real important things. My family has been blessed with great health, we always had enough to eat and a roof over our heads what more can you ask?

There is a theory among some psychiatrists that we are not guided by the fickle hand of fate but that we make our own luck and books have been written that tell people how to change their luck. Supposedly you can change your luck by you mental attitude. If you have the right attitude and mental state these psychiatrists believe that luck will flow to you. So I guess that if you believe all this you will have to look at luck like a river. The next thing you have to do is try and figure out how to get into it.